Shop keeping troubles
Time to sum up some of the shop keeping experiences lately.

SupplyThe supply of raw materials have been subject to discussion since day 1 of the economy. It's hideous as it is right now. Camping is utterly boring and a sign of weakness in the design. Foraging just plain isn't worth it.Markets don't have enough labors I hear, and they don't provide what we need. The 5 colonized islands in Emerald will suck the archipelago dry of everything the more shops we get, and it's bad as it is.It seems like the most of the rum there is is magically created by the devs(which after all is good so we can go be pirates).And markets are boosted by devs on and off too.It's not working.

DemandWith the start of Beta we've had an enormous influx of new pirates, and wow they keep me busy. I sell as much in one day as I used to sell in one week before the beta, but pretty much all of it is brown/white due to lack of dyes. And since I cannot possibly keep up with supply since I rely on a weaver who relies on a apothecary that all rely on a supply situation that is not working, Im getting huge amounts of people complaining about lack of cloth or about having to wait for their orders to finish. And they dont care about a non working supply system, they just want their clothes and NOW. Im constantly getting more and more rude and aggressive tells and speaks on when and why not. And I know thats the case for other shop keepers too.It's not fun.

LaborThe latest change with having a max amount of workers has halted alot of businesses. It seems like the reason is to encourage more shops to pop up so a few shops can't supply everyone and the task of shop keeping is shared by more. There's not enough raw materials to stock the current shops, more shops will only make the situation worse for more shop keepers. A more gentle shift towards such a situation would've been nice so we on Guava for instance could've planned ahead and built some more shops, but with 45 employees max in the realtor it will take an average building with the perfect 45 employees a month to get built.I had way over the 15 max employees I can have, and every day I loose a handfull or more employees and the list of orders around peak hours get longer and the customers louder. Once we get craft puzzle ratings, it will get even harder to know your employees.

Changes?The restrictions on the amount of workers in shops will have to be removed or raised considerably soon or prices will start to inflate heavily and there will be fewer ships sailing.

The supply of raw materials need some serious change such as the harvesting based on consumption there's talk of elsewhere.

I would like a labor system where we only have 1 job per account, this would make people actually care where they work, and shopkeepers know that their 15 employees are actually working for them. Also it would enable customers to get correct estimations on when their order is complete so they can shop around for that too. With craft puzzle ratings it would even make shop keepers shop for workers.

Some way to encourage trading would be nice, it's completely unpredictable right now where you can sail from Guava to Uxmal and find 4 nettle a trip that will cost you a fortune and take hours. And the building of shops in Emerald is causing items to disappear from the markets all the time. Take markets away from players and make them auto harvest and sell.But otherwise having a contract system where a shopkeeper can issue a contract for commodities to be guaranteed available/reserved in one shop and delivered by a trader would give traders a simple way to evaluate whether it's worth their time or even profitable. I could even see all trading done this way, it would take out camping and tedious trips to empty markets.
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-= SilverBeard of The Mad Mutineers =---=== www.madmutineers.com ===--